Sermons by Chris Stephens
TWL – 7DeadlySins- S8E5
Is it possible we’re hungering for something food can’t satisfy? Pastor Chris says gluttony isn’t about how much we eat but why we eat, and he points to how Jesus answered temptation in the wilderness. Pastor Chris starts with numbers. He cites the CDC saying 74% of Americans are overweight and 40.3% of adults are obese, then says obesity is a symptom, not the problem. Scripturally, the problem is gluttony, and you can be a glutton at any weight. The…
Regret – 10.11.26 – EP05
Peter ate with the Gentiles until a certain group walked in, then he moved tables. Pastor Chris shows from Galatians why people pleasing leads to regret, and who we should be aiming to please instead. Pastor Chris closes the Regret series with its fifth question to ask before a big decision: who are we aiming to please? He says there are only two choices, God or people, and that a people pleaser lives for the praise and approval of others.…
TWL – 7DeadlySins- S8E4
A champion’s rival chiseled at a statue night after night, and it cost him everything. Pastor Chris looks at envy, the sin that rots the bones, and three ways to get free of it. Pastor Chris continues the series on the seven deadly sins with the second one: envy. He opens with an ancient Greek story about an athlete who finished second. Night after night he chiseled at the base of the winner’s statue, until it fell and killed him.…
Regret – 10.4.26 – EP04
Pastor Chris continues the Regret series with the fourth question to ask before we decide anything: is there a grudge that won’t budge? He starts in James 3, where James describes two kinds of wisdom, God’s and man’s. Then he compares a grudge to too much alcohol. Both distort our view of reality. In Mark 6, Herodias nursed a grudge against John the Baptist, and it ended with John’s death. Leviticus 19:18 tells us not to seek revenge or bear…
TWL – 7DeadlySins- S8E3
Pride was once seen as a fatal flaw. Today it’s celebrated. Pastor Chris traces it back to the garden, names three forms it takes, and shows why it drains our spiritual life. Pastor Chris opens the series on the seven deadly sins with pride. He defines it as the desire to be something you’re not. He takes us back to Genesis 3:5, where the serpent told Adam and Eve they could be like God. They bit, sin entered the world,…
Regret – 9.27.26 – EP03
Regret has a way of sneaking up on us, not because we don’t know better, but because we’re moving too fast to notice we’re headed the wrong way. This week, we continued our series on regret by asking a simple but piercing question: What’s the hurry? It turns out that the rush we treat as a badge of honor might actually be the very thing setting us up for a lifetime of looking back and wishing we’d done things differently.…
TWL – 7DeadlySins- S8E2
Why Are They Called the Seven Deadly Sins? Truth Worth Living returns this week with the second installment of our series on the seven deadly sins. Before we explore pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth, we need to answer an important question: Why call any sin “deadly”? Where Did the List Come From?Pope Gregory the Great compiled the traditional list of the seven deadly sins. His framework distinguished between venial sins—sins considered minor—and mortal sins, which were believed…
Regert – 9.20.26 – EP2
Regret has a way of showing up uninvited. It sits quietly in the back of our minds, reminding us of the decision we wish we could take back, the words we wish we hadn’t said, the year we wish we could live over. In week two of our series on regret, we look honestly at why we make the decisions we do, and we ask a question that might surprise you: what if chasing your own happiness is actually the…
TWL – 7 Deadly Sins EP01
Seven Deadly Sins: Why We Still Need to Talk About Sin One of the criticisms often leveled at churches today is that pastors do not talk enough about sin. The assumption is that preaching has become too positive, too encouraging, and too focused on making people feel good. So, should we get back to making everybody feel terrible about themselves? Probably not. But there is another danger on the opposite side: pretending sin is not a serious problem. And that…